The romcom draft · 3 of 3

Reading your board

One moment.

Good news

Counting the overlap

Time to plan a date night.

When Harry Met Sally...1989
Groundhog Day1993
Clueless1995

Two you are missing

Two more that work
for both of you

Films you could put on with a date and expect you both to enjoy. That is the whole measure on this page — a film that travels is one neither of you has to sit through for the other.

Four Weddings and a Funeral1994
Notting Hill1999

Where the rest of your board sits

The split

Mostly rated by men

  1. 1When Harry Met Sally... 1989
  2. 2Groundhog Day 1993
  3. 3So I Married an Axe Murderer 1993
  4. 4Better Off Dead 1985
  5. 5There's Something About Mary 1998
  6. 6Say Anything... 1989
  7. 7The Princess Bride 1987
  8. 8Knocked Up 2007
  9. 9Grosse Pointe Blank 1997
  10. 10Hitch 2005

Rated highly by women too

  1. 1Notting Hill 1999
  2. 2Love Actually 2003
  3. 3The Holiday 2006
  4. 4Bridget Jones's Diary 2001
  5. 510 Things I Hate About You 1999
  6. 6Clueless 1995
  7. 7Sleepless in Seattle 1993
  8. 8Pretty Woman 1990
  9. 9How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days 2003
  10. 10My Best Friend's Wedding 1997

Optional

Take the card
with you

Your result is already yours — nothing below is required to see it, and nothing here is gated behind a share.

TheVisibleHand

My top ten
romcoms

  1. 1Groundhog Day
  2. 2So I Married an Axe Murderer
  3. 3The Wedding Singer
  4. 4When Harry Met Sally...
  5. 5Coming to America
  6. 650 First Dates
  7. 7Clueless
  8. 8Better Off Dead
  9. 9Palm Springs
  10. 10L.A. Story

You came for the SNL guys · thevisiblehandbook.com

Save it

Post it

What goes out. The ten films and your crossover count. Not your gender, not your email, not an identifier — the card is rendered in your browser and the link carries only the list.

Anyone who opens it lands on the draft, not on your result.

The hand

Somebody was counting

Every film on that board got made because a person read a number and said yes. Here is the number they are reading now.

37Romantic comedies in US theatres, 1999
12%Share of the North American box office
9Romantic comedies, twenty-five years later — one percent

What to do about it

Your watch history
is a ballot

The genre did not fall out of fashion. A studio ran the numbers, found that a mid-budget film about two people talking returns less than a franchise, and stopped commissioning them. Your shortlist is thin after 2010 because the supply is thin after 2010.

We vote with our eyes, our time and our wallets. Every minute you spend is counted, and the count decides what gets greenlit next. So spend it on purpose. Finish the thing you want more of. Pay for it. Watch it twice. Put it on the list you share.

Your watch history is the only ballot the people commissioning next year’s films will ever see from you. Vote like you want something good to come out in 2030.

Read Chapter Eight